Intervju: HAPPY TRENDY

För ett par veckor sedan kunde ni läsa om den unga talangen HAPPY TRENDY här på bloggen.
Hans musik är minst sagt säregen och skivan, Old Friends, har kommit att bli en av mina absoluta måsten.
Jag fick chansen att byta ett par ord med honom och kunde således få en klarare bild av vad som gömde sig bakom ljudet.

You have previously made ​​music under the name Kumon Plaza - what sets Kumon Plaza and HAPPY TRENDY apart, what's the difference?
I started working on the Kumon Plaza project just over a year ago. I was really into 8-bit music and using gameboys as sequencers at the time. I really had no plans of getting my music out on the internet, it was mostly just a little project I had as a hobby. To my surprise the first release made it's way around the blogs and that kind of introduced me to the whole blog scene and exposed me to meeting a lot of rad people. After playing a bunch of shows around Western Canada I got a little bit bored with the project. I may or may not be working on new KP stuff in the future, I haven't decided yet. The move to HAPPY TRENDY was mostly because I wanted to try out a more "songy" approach with the vocals rather then just electronic instrumentals.

Tell me a little about how/when the album Old Friends was created.
I wrote and recorded the Old Friends tape over this past winter break. It gets really cold here, the winters are really long. I was cramped up and keeping warm in my basement and I had a lot of things on my mind.

Which out of your songs means the most to you and why?
All the songs I've put out are really personal and they're mostly about past experiences in my life. I think Two Grams is probably the most meaningful song to me. It's about my grandfather who died a few years ago. The loop that plays throughout the song is sampled from an old Casio keyboard I used to play around with when I was really young.

What inspires you in making your music?
I'm inspired by past experiences, nostalgia, and just the plain nature of life. A lot of different ideas pop into my head all the time, so I'll write it down and play around with it when I get home or something. The writing and recording process usually happens at the same time for me. As soon as I jam out an idea I'll immediately start recording it to my tape machine and start working on a song.

Mention some music that others should check out.
I'm always listening to a lot of Coma Cinema, Foxes in Fiction, Chad VanGaalen, Silly Kissers, and Azeda Booth. I've also had some French records on repeat lately.. Arnaud Fleurent-Didier's "La Reproduction", and Serge Gainsbourg's "Les Années Psychédéliques 1966-1971".